Snippets from John Goldi’s Testimony

Sworn Testimony of John Goldi

Goldi Productions Ltd. v Ritchie Sinclair

On Nov 28 2010, John Goldi of Goldi Productions Ltd. received the first of three libel notices served by Ritchie Sinclair with regard to alleged defamation. In 2011 Goldi Productions Ltd. sued Mr. Sinclair for $25K in small claims court for allegedly defaming its company name and slandering the title to six purported Morrisseau paintings which the company owns.

In 2013 Goldi Productions Ltd. published a website blog with bizarre articles written by John Goldi which contain numerous outrageous allegations. John Goldi, Joan Goldi and co-publisher, Ugo Matulic, were sued for defamation in Superior Court by Mr. Sinclair in 2013. Goldi Productions Ltd., John Goldi and Joan Goldi were also sued by lawyer Jonathan Sommer in 2014 in a separate defamation action. Each lawsuit seeks upwards of $1.000.000.00 in damages.

John Goldi testifies about his expertise in identifying fakes

I pointed out that I am a historian, going way back that as a history, professional history – I know all about documents. I know about telling fake documents. I run the biggest complex of internet museums in the world. My world war museum is hailed all over the world for all kinds of fakes. It’s got huge articles on fake bugles. It’s the biggest expose on fake war photographs ever done by anybody.

John Goldi’s sworn testimony in Goldi Productions Ltd. v Sinclair

John Goldi testifies about being a forensic guy

I’m a visual guy and I’m a forensic guy because I’m also the curator of the Anglo Boer War Museum. The museum has about 4,500 items in it, all of which I have curated. They’re all 100 years old. I know they’re real because I’ve educated myself, and I know what is fake paper. I know what is fake glass. I can tell fake wood. I can tell fake signatures because I’ve trained myself over many years to do that.

John Goldi’s sworn testimony in Goldi Productions Ltd. v Sinclair

John Goldi testifies about his expertise as an art curator

Opinion is gas unless it’s supported by facts, and documents and if you can show that you have the expertise or credibility. I know that, I can, as an archivist, as a curator, I can look at that because of my background in curating old art, old paper, old paint because I own hundreds of them in my cellar, and I know what they look like and where they are.

John Goldi’s sworn testimony in Goldi Productions Ltd. v Sinclair

John Goldi testifies about being a museum curator

Q. On the internet, you claim to be the curator of a museum.A. Correct.Q. Who appointed you curator?A. I did.Q. And who promotes you as curator?A. Who what?Q. Who promotes you as curator of that, who advertises you as curator of that museum?A. I do.Q. Does anyone else?A. Well, I guess my wife.Q. Is there any accreditation of any sort for your museum?A. I don’t know what that means.Q. Is your museum in some way recognized by, I don’t know, the Museum Association of Canada? I am not privy to the particulars of that information but is there accreditation that says that your museum is actually a museum?A. I do.Q. Okay. How much does it cost to get in your museum?A. It’s an internet museum Mr. Sinclair.Q. So it’s a website?A. Well, it’s an internet museum. That’s what I’ve called it for let’s say from 1999. How long is that? 15 years?Q. What website is your museum located on?A. Its own website. It’s independent…Q. What’s the name of it on the internet?A. I think it’s called Canadian Anglo Boer. Canadian Boer War Museum I think, dot com.Q. Is it? You mean you actually don’t know the name of your own museum?A. No, I don’t know.Q. Who built the web site?A. I did. I don’t know if it is Canadian Anglo Boer War Museum. I think it is probably Canadian Anglo Boer War Museum. Is that what it is Joan?MS. GOLDI: I don’t know. I haven’t looked at it for a while.

John Goldi’s sworn testimony in Goldi Productions Ltd. v Sinclair

John Goldi testifies about his intenet presence

MR. GOLDI: May I answer one of his questions please?THE COURT: Certainly.MR. GOLDI: A. I saw, I can call my, and I have since 1999, called my internet website, which is the largest educational website in the world.Q. Bigger than the Louvre?A. It’s bigger – the Louvre has no internet presence that compares to mine. My educational Boer War Museum is bigger than the Smithsonian’s, the Imperial War Museum, and the Canadian war museums combined.

John Goldi’s sworn testimony in Goldi Productions Ltd. v Sinclair

John Goldi testifies about the size of his museum

Q. So, your internet museum that you don’t know the name of the website itself, is actually the biggest museum…A. It is.Q. …in the whole world?A. It’s the biggest, educational museum in the world. And it’s got thousands of huge pictures, thousands of items on it.

John Goldi’s sworn testimony in Goldi Productions Ltd. v Sinclair

John Goldi testifies about his museum curator credentials

I might also point out that I’m not an imposter. I have a huge file published hugely and prominently on the website about my credentials and my background and there is nobody hiding or doing hanky-panky. My credentials are as good as any museum curator’s in Canada.

John Goldi’s sworn testimony in Goldi Productions Ltd. v Sinclair

John Goldi testifies about his academic credentials

Every Tuesday night, I go fiddle in a bar in Hamilton. There is a table there with about 10 curators of regional museums from Oakville, Hamilton. All of them have lesser academic credentials then I have yet they are running Dundurn Castle. They are running the Chisholm House in Oakville. They are running the Steamship Museum in Hamilton.

John Goldi’s sworn testimony in Goldi Productions Ltd. v Sinclair

John Goldi testifies about his expertise at exposing frauds

Q. Tell me about your expertise when it comes to fakes. Fakes of any kind in the whole world. Have you ever found any fakes in your collections? A. I have seen lots of fakes of different kinds, all over the place.Q. That you actually bought? That were part of Goldi Productions Collections? A. What are you talking about, because I have collected 4500 pieces of artwork and memorabilia items?Q. Were any of those discovered by you with your expertise to…A. All of them have been vetted by me as being historical authentic items, whether they’re cups, saucers, whether they’re photographs, whether they’re lithographs, chromo-lithographic. Whether they’re aqua-pinch, whether they’re pastels, acrylics. I’ve done it all Mr. Sinclair.Q. Have you had any education whatsoever, in being able to identify authentic memorabilia…A. Lots. My whole website is based on exposing frauds.

John Goldi’s sworn testimony in Goldi Productions Ltd. v Sinclair

John Goldi testifies about his background

Every thing that is on my website is 100 percent authenticated by a professional accredited historian with a huge background Mr. Sinclair, which you can’t even imagine in authenticated historical memorabilia items. I also have a huge background in education, which you can’t even imagine.

John Goldi’s sworn testimony in Goldi Productions Ltd. v Sinclair

John Goldi testifies about being a credentialed historian

I am a credentialed historian who has footnotes and gives quotes and gives reference for everything that I say.

John Goldi’s sworn testimony in Goldi Productions Ltd. v Sinclair

John Goldi testifies about the imagery on his museum website

Our website has the biggest and hugest, gaudiest j-pegs of any museum in the whole world. I don’t mind saying. Hundreds of pages with thousands of huge j-pegs.

John Goldi’s sworn testimony in Goldi Productions Ltd. v Sinclair

John Goldi testifies about court

I have seen more Morrisseau courts than any other person, living or dead.

John Goldi’s sworn testimony in Goldi Productions Ltd. v Sinclair

John Goldi testifies about spreading lies

So, the problem is where does one go for truth and for decency and honesty when vicious lies are spread over and over and over by people who have no credentials, have no documents, just hot air blowing left right and centre, and Courts throw them out and over and over and they just keep coming back again, over and over, with this same lunacy. It’s not a great moment in Canadian art heritage, let me tell you that.

John Goldi’s sworn testimony in Goldi Productions Ltd. v Sinclair

John Goldi testifies about Random House

I might point out to you, that Random House published a book called “A Museum Called Canada.” The book was the museum. In fact, Random House stole my concept as a book from my museum.

John Goldi’s sworn testimony in Goldi Productions Ltd. v Sinclair

John Goldi testifies about verifying the authenticity of his paintings

Q. What did you do to verify that they were authentic Morrisseau’s?
A. I didn’t want to do anything, because I knew in my gut from my long investigative background as a historical writer, as a historian going to back to 1966, and all my subsequent work as a curator on the Anglo Boar War Museum, that the paintings were as genuine as you are standing there.

John Goldi’s sworn testimony in Goldi Productions Ltd. v Sinclair

John Goldi testifies about Ritchie Sinclair

So what do people do? Most people hope he’ll die and just go away. That’s what most people actually think. They’ll just hope he dies and it will go away. What else can there be?

John Goldi testifies about Ritchie Sinclair’s assertions

A. I don’t agree with any of your premises, in fact last week, last court date, you told me that I defiled and defamed Norval like nobody’s business.
Q. I have never seen anything like it.
A. So, I went home. You gave me a particular sentence about dead beat Dad. I went home and I looked it up, and I looked at my website. There is only that one sentence in there called “Norval was the world’s worst dead beat Dad.”

John Goldi’s sworn testimony in Goldi Productions Ltd. v Sinclair

John Goldi testifies about not being malicious

I am going to make this my last attempt to show that I am not malicious, I am not derelict. I do not have a hate on, as Mr. Sinclair said. “You must hate me and you must hate Don Robinson.” This is false. It is defamatory, and it is unsubstantiated.

John Goldi testifies about Morrisseau paintings

In 1999/2000, Norval was going to have his art exhibition at the National Gallery of Canada and everybody who had a Morrisseau in Northern Ontario shipped it to Toronto, hoping they could make a big buck. Hundreds of them came down here. Hundreds of them.

John Goldi testifies about meeting Ritchie Sinclair

That’s where we first met Mr. Sinclair, and in fact, the very first time we ever met, I was standing there. I think I was wearing this same jacket and I was standing there like this, with my hands in my pockets between two people, and he lunged at me and shouted, “What are you people doing?” It took me back. I’ve never been – I’ve been in a lot of drunks in Indian communities and Dene communities, but nobody’s ever done that to me. So, we knew who Mr. Sinclair was, at that point because we know he was an enforcer for this fake theory of forgeries out there.

John Goldi testifies about verso signatures

All I am merely pointing out, is this painting is being slanged and along with 4,000 others, that are equal to this one. They are what I call them, BDP, black drybrush painting, signed, titled, dated on the back in black and these are the paintings that Ritchie Sinclair specifically targets. 1970’s BDP. Now, why is that?

John Goldi’s sworn testimony in Goldi Productions Ltd. v Sinclair

John Goldi testifies about Randy Potter sourced paintings

I went to Randy Potter’s many times and I saw hundreds of paintings. I looked at the backs, I look at the front. They were dirty, filthy. Some were clean, some were okay, others were really rotten filthy, with staple marks, double staple marks, they were cracked.

John Goldi’s sworn testimony in Goldi Productions Ltd. v Sinclair

John Goldi testifies about selling his artwork

I’ve had this painting on our antique site for years. Nobody wants to buy it. Lots of other people want to buy our other paintings. We sold some. I’ve had this up on Kijiji for weeks. Nobody even wants it for a dollar. Nobody has even made an offer, and that complies to our other seven paintings as well.

John Goldi’s sworn testimony in Goldi Productions Ltd. v Sinclair

John Goldi testifies about his film

We made a fantastic film that people have praised and praised to the skies everywhere, but you know what I got? I got a letter from a police captain, in Owen Sound who said, “You did a shitty film. You did a piece of crap. We’re not going to buy any of your outdoor educational films. We’re going get them from some other place.” He didn’t use that language exactly, but that’s what he wrote.

John Goldi’s sworn testimony in Goldi Productions Ltd. v Sinclair

John Goldi testifies about art dealers

Q. Okay. Here is another statement by you Mr. Goldi. You say, “We have seen fake Morrisseau’s turn up at auctions in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, Ottawa, and Montreal, as well as on e-Bay.” Is that true or not? A. I haven’t got a clue if I wrote that or not. Q. Well, who in your company wrote it? A. I haven’t got a clue what page you are on or where, or what you are talking about here. Are you trying to say that Randy Potter’s is a remote country auction? Is that where you are going to? You mean where 200 of Canada’s top art dealers went to buy Morrisseau paintings… Q. 200 of Canada’s top art dealers? A. 200. Q. Name me three. A. Donald Robinson, Jim White, Joe Otavnik. There were tons of them.Q. How many galleries does Mr. White have?A. I haven’t got a clue. Q. How many galleries does Mr. Otavnik have? A. I haven’t got a clue.

John Goldi’s sworn testimony in Goldi Productions Ltd. v Sinclair

John Goldi testifies about newspaper articles on Morrisseau fakes

Q. Did you begin to wonder if your paintings were fake in 2001 after the newspaper articles started coming out?
A. No.
Q. Did you wonder if they were fake in 2004?
A. Why would I wonder Mr. Sinclair?
Q. More TV and newspaper articles came out.
A. Why would I, first of all, the letter, the article that came out, was an incompetent piece of journalism.
Q. There were many newspaper articles though weren’t there?
A. One is more incompetent than the next.

John Goldi’s sworn testimony in Goldi Productions Ltd. v Sinclair

John Goldi testifies about Randy Potter Auctions

Q. Where is the auction house located that you bought these paintings?
A. One of them is in Pickering, and one of them is in Port Hope.
Q. And they are both owned by…
A. I haven’t got a clue.
Q. Who owned the auction house?
A. I haven’t got a clue.
Q. Who is your witness that you are supposed to have here today?
A. I’m not supposed to have…
Q. Who is Mr. Potter?
A. I’m not supposed to have a witness here today.
Q. Who is Mr. Potter?
A. Mr. Potter is an auctioneer. Whether he owned the building, the property, is not known to me. Auctioneers are often just hired hands who come into a building, do the auction and leave.
Q. What was the auction house in Port Hope called?
A. In Port Hope?
Q. Yes.
A. It may have been called Randy Potter.

John Goldi’s sworn testimony in Goldi Productions Ltd. v Sinclair

John Goldi testifies about being a co-founder of the Canadian NAZI party

As I said, my journalistic background started if you want, when I graduated from the University of Toronto in 1966. In fact, if you know, and I know you know, that you’ve read my website, I’ve celebrated my 50th year as an investigative journalist this year, because in 1965, I infiltrated the Canadian, the founding of the Canadian Nazi Party in Toronto. That was my very first investigative job. I did that with a fourth year…Q. Is the article with regard to this infiltration of the Nazi party…A. It’s on my website.Q. …well, it’s here amongst the many, many volumes and materials of your history as an investigative journalist…A. That’s right.Q. …or did you not just join this Nazi group?A. Mr. Sinclair. There is a deadline on entering documents, December 20th, 2013. Stuff subsequent to that, I am not entering into the Court. The Court won’t permit me to. There is a deadline.Q. Okay, I’m asking you. You’re on the stand. Was there a published article from your infiltration of the Nazi party 50 years ago, that was the first step of you as an investigative journalist in the classical sense, in the sense that we all understand a journalist to be?A. I, followed the route of a classical investigative journalist in hiding, and infiltrating myself, in John Beatty’s Nazi Party Founding.Q. For what purpose?A. Because we were going to expose it to the Toronto Star.Q. Did you expose it?A. No, we didn’t.